Father Oleh Horbovskyi, a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, spoke at the Ecumenical Social Week held at UCU on October 7-10 about his ministry in occupied Henichesk and his active participation in peaceful resistance to the Russian occupation.
This was reported by SFU (Spiritual Front of Ukraine) with reference to the Facebook page of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of UCU.
“I faced the full-scale invasion in the city of Henichesk, where I lived with my family. Through me, a peaceful protest - a demonstration - was organized on March 6, 2022, in the city of Henichesk. Although it was believed to be a city of collaborators, it turned out to be untrue. A lot of people took part in the protest, and the goal was to show that Henichesk is a Ukrainian city,” said the OCU priest.
He also drew attention to the difficult situation local residents found themselves in due to the pressure of the occupation authorities.
“We cannot imagine all the pressure put on these people, the trying circumstances that conspired,” said Fr Oleh.
Fr Horbovskyi shared his experience of ministry during the occupation of Crimea when his church was surrounded by checkpoints. He spoke about meeting a woman who came to Crimea to visit her relatives and was afraid to show her patriotism:
“The woman said she came to visit her relatives in Crimea. She told me she could not even “like” a regular post on social media. She couldn't confess to the priest, couildn't share the things bothering her. All in all, it's just hard to demonstrate one's patriotism.”
In conclusion, the priest emphasized that Ukrainians will not accept the occupation of their land and will fight for its liberation: “People like us, Ukrainians, will not accept our land being under occupation. We will resist. Our territories must be free.”